


Two Begin To Bloom

by WoodenSuitcase



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Co-workers, Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, First Kiss, Fluff, Getting Together, Happy Ending, I Can't Believe I Wrote This, Insecurity, M/M, One Shot, POV Gilderoy Lockhart, POV Third Person Limited, Rare Pairings, Reminiscing, Romance, i don't know what i expected to break my writer's block but snockhart sure wasn't it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:41:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25764595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WoodenSuitcase/pseuds/WoodenSuitcase
Summary: Severus was like that – a little cold, perhaps a tad unfriendly, took care to keep his distance – but Lockhart had to admit there was a sort of charm to that. The student body didn’t seem to agree, but Lockhart had always been more socially aware than most people.(Snape stays up late grading papers. Lockhart keeps him company.)
Relationships: Gilderoy Lockhart/Severus Snape
Comments: 18
Kudos: 64





	Two Begin To Bloom

**Author's Note:**

> Blame the Shifting Lines Discord.
> 
> The title is from Cool with You by Her's.

In the wake of the recent basilisk attacks the staff had decided on a new rule: no one was to be left alone in the castle, including the teachers themselves. This meant that when someone wanted to stay in the staff room late into the night grading papers, they always had someone to do it with. Occasionally it made the work easier, and when it didn’t, at least it was more pleasant as there was someone to chat with. If, that is, that someone was a person whose company you enjoyed.

Lockhart clapped his hands together to draw attention. ”If anyone’s planning on working late tonight, I can make the sacrifice and stay with them! I have the first two periods free tomorrow morning, so I should still be able to get my beauty sleep.” He flashed a brilliant smile at his colleagues. ”Just saying this so no one has to worry about inconveniencing others either by staying, or by leaving early – I am here if anyone needs me.”

”How nice of you, Gilderoy,” said McGonagall in that strange gritted-teeth way she often used when talking to him – Lockhart’s current theory was that she was trying to smile but just wasn’t very good at it yet.

”I thought so as well,” he smiled back before returning to his work.

It seemed, however, that this was one of those rare evenings when everyone went to bed early. Lockhart thought it was a little strange when Flitwick was one of the first to leave, seeing as he had just today collected a high stack of essays from his fifth-years and was the type to get work out of the way quickly – but perhaps he had just had a long day. The work of a teacher could be rather wearing and unpredictable at times, after all, and not everyone could be as resilient as Lockhart.

In an hour the staff room was almost empty. Only Severus was left to keep him company. _When did I start thinking of him by his first name?_ Lockhart wondered as he ran his eyes over the other man’s shapely back. Severus certainly didn’t do the same with him, not even when he talked, unlike most professors. He was like that – a little cold, perhaps a tad unfriendly, took care to keep his distance – but Lockhart had to admit there was a sort of charm to that. Not a literal one, of course – just something that made the very thought of the Potions Master give him a pleasant, fluttery feeling. Lockhart had noticed it on his very first day back at the school. The student body didn’t seem to agree, but Lockhart had always been more socially aware than most people.

That feeling helped him get through the next few hours. Had it been any other teacher he was left with, he would have thrown a conversation starter their way every now and then. Severus, however, looked like he was deeply engrossed in his work and Lockhart felt that at the moment he might not have appreciated the interruption. After Lockhart himself no longer felt like working he simply took a copy of one of his books to reread again – he’d soon be teaching the first years about vampires, and he wanted to make sure he hadn’t forgotten any details about ”his” voyages.

The moon had climbed high onto the sky when Lockhart suddenly noticed Severus had stopped writing. He looked his way, but Severus was in the same position as before, hunched over his parchment – only still, and quiet, his quill no longer scratching the paper. At first Lockhart thought he was merely taking a break to rest his hand, or perhaps there was something tricky the man needed to think about – but when it had been twenty minutes, he could no longer hold his tongue.

”A knut for your thoughts?”

Severus winced and gave him a quick glare. ”You’d have to pay a lot more than that,” he sneered.

”Hmm.” Lockhart digged around his pockets until he found a fine leather pouch. Severus’s brows knit together when he laid ten galleons on his desk. ”Is that enough?”

”No,” Severus spat.

Lockhart added ten more galleons. ”Twenty?”

” _No –”_ Lockhart reached into the pouch once more, and Severus grabbed his wrist – and his fingers were _so cold_ yet Lockhart knew the shiver running through him had nothing to do with temperature. ”No,” Severus repeated, ”what I mean is that I don’t want your money. Who even carries that much with them at a _school_?”

”Well, if I happen to come across someone in desperate need of financial aid, it would be far less dramatic for me to say ’let me write a letter to Gringotts to transfer you some money’ than just pour a bagfull of gold onto their hands right then and there.”

Severus stared at him for a moment before just returning to his parchment. Lockhart stood there for a while, but as Severus started writing again and didn’t look up, he sat down on the closest chair and took his book up again. After a moment the writing slowed down and once again halted.

They stayed like that for a while, Severus staring at his parchment, Lockhart reading over and over the same sentence in _Voyages with Vampires_ – neither man getting much done, it seemed. Lockhart kept getting distracted by Severus’s figure. He truly did have charm, yes, perhaps almost (but not quite, that’d be impossible) rivaling Lockhart’s own. There were small burns on his hands, likely from stray drops of unfinished potions. What would they feel like under his fingertips? What would it be like to hold those hands in his?

”Lockhart.”

”Hmm?” He laid the book on a nearby desk to politely give the other man all his attention. Severus didn’t shift, didn’t even look up – but perhaps this was better, for now he wouldn’t catch Lockhart staring. Moonlight streamed from the window behind Severus, casting a soft silver aura where it hit him. It fit him, Lockhart thought. Silver went well with black.

”You left your gold.”

”I did,” he said. Severus hesitated.

”I’ve been...” he started slowly. ”I’ve been thinking of our... school days.”

”You have?” Lockhart smiled and moved his chair closer. ”You were a year or two above me, yes? It’s a shame we didn’t know each other then, but even so those were some marvelous times. And it was before the war too… Oh, to be young again, young and carefree. Not to say that years haven’t been kind to me,” he added, flashing Severus the smile that had so many times won him the front page on _Witch Weekly._ ”No, it’s clear I am going to age like fine wine, and surely so will you, my friend!”

Severus finally raised his nose from the parchment – only to scowl. Lockhart, however, wasn’t backing down. They were having a friendly chat! Who would’ve thought!

”Tell me, Severus,” he said, ”was there a specific memory you were thinking about?”

Severus took a deep breath, and then, without meeting his eyes – ”Valentine’s Day.”

”Oh?” Lockhart couldn’t help but flash a teasing grin. ”Never took you for a romantic.”

Severus glared at him some more, but this time… Lockhart’s eyes must have been tired, for it almost seemed softer.

”1978. Breakfast.”

Lockhart’s insides plummeted in the same manner as when one is about to fall off a chair or trip on ice. ”That was, ah… Well. I was young, not as experienced with fame… Surely we all have done things we regret. I have been trying to pass on my knowledge to Harry so he won’t make the same mistakes – that poor tree! – but –”

”There is no point in trying to teach Potter _anything_ ,” Severus snarled, and Lockhart snapped his mouth shut. ”He’s exactly like his father. There’s nothing you can do.” Severus held eye contact for a moment before sighing and setting down his quill, no longer caring to keep up the pretense of work. He looked at the parchement for a moment, but just as Lockhart was about to say something to break the silence, he spoke again. ”The amount of your… ’fan’ mail… I heard there were eight hundred Valentines.”

”It _could_ have made sense, had people just given it a little more thought!” said Lockhart defensively. ”I never meant to imply that many people had crushes on me – perhaps some just sent multiple letters! It was perfectly possible for me to have at least two hundred secret admirers, and if each of them wrote four –”

”Hm, perhaps. You did always stand out.”

Lockhart’s breath caught in his throat. Did Severus mean – had he already noticed him as a youth? He didn’t have the time to gather himself before Severus continued.

”You never read them… did you?”

Lockhart blinked. ”I sent most of them myself. You know this – it felt like it didn’t even take a day for the news to have reached the very last student in Hogwarts.”

Severus hummed. ”It wouldn’t be uncharasteristic of you to read them anyway.”

”...I suppose not. It’s not as if I ever had the chance, though – I believe they were thrown away with the owl droppings and other mess, for in the end most of them never did reach me.”

”...Of course.”

There was a sorrowful tone to the man’s voice, so slight it was barely noticeable. Yet it was nearly enough for Lockhart to lay a comforting hand on his shoulder, regardless of him not understanding what had caused this sudden melancholy to arise. Had it been anyone else he wouldn’t have hesitated, but touching Severus…

”One of them was mine,” Severus said, so softly Lockhart had to strain to hear it.

”One of the letters they cleaned away?” Horror clasped Lockhart’s chest. ”Did my stunt ruin your chances with someone? Oh, Severus, I’m so terribly sorry – I never even thought about the owls mines blocked, the _real_ Valentines that never reached their destinations –”

” _No,_ you idiot!” Severus snarled, and Lockhart flinched back. When had he even gotten that close to him? His knees were inches apart from Severus’s thighs. ”Idiot,” Severus repeated, and suddenly, black eyes locked with blue – truly _locked_. Lockhart felt lost in their depths, with no way out – but he didn’t think he wanted one.

”It was for you,” Severus whispered. ”It was my letter, to you. To tell you how I felt.”

A soft ”what?” left Lockhart’s lips in a breath of shock and befuddlement.

”I wrote about how you kept invading my dreams – how the very thought of you made me smile, how your dumb golden hair was the only spot of light in my life...” And there were tears in those eyes now, and this time Lockhart didn’t even think before raising his hand to his cheek, tenderly wiping them away.

”Oh, Severus...”

”I feared you didn’t want me,” Severus said, his voice hoarse.

”No –”

”And I thought, of course you wouldn’t. _No one_ has ever wanted me, not Lily, not even my own father – how could the most handsome man in my life…?”

”Severus, Severus, shh.” Lockhart drew him into an embrace. Severus’s tears stained through his lilac robes, but he didn’t care, not when this all felt somehow so _right_ – the way their bodies fit together, it was as if this was always meant to be, as if he had unknowingly been looking for something all his life and had now finally found it. He rubbed circles on Severus’s back, buried his nose into his long black hair – and Severus accepted it all, climbing further onto his lap, hugging him tighter. ”Severus,” Lockhart murmured. ”Oh Severus, my dear Severus… how could I ever not want you?”

Severus sniffled, and Lockhart raised his face from his hair so he could look at him.

”You are an amazing man, Severus. I may have been too stuck in my own head as a youngling to notice you, but on my very first day back here, as a professor… This castle sports many, many miracles, a thousand years’ worth of magic I was expecting to be awed by once again… And yet, what was the most incredible think I saw when I came back? What briefly left me speechless? Not the ceiling of the Great Hall, not Albus’s admittedly fabulous robes, not the amount of admiring gazes I finally draw from the student body. No – it was _you_. You have swept me off my feet.”

Severus grumbled against his shoulder, something about truth serum and lies, and Lockhart chuckled.

”No! You call me an idiot, but in all honesty, I believe it goes both ways. Severus, listen to me. You are the Head of the Slytherin house – that’s an honorable responsibility, a powerful position – would you ever have guessed as a student that you’d get here? I surely didn’t think I would one day be a professor!”

”Didn’t you go around telling everyone you would become the youngest Minister of Magic?”

” _And_ you’re the single most skilled potioneer in all of Britain, which is by no means something to be humble about! And – well, I’m not entirely sure what your role was in the war, but Albus seems to trust and respect you a great amount.” Lockhart cupped Severus’s cheek and gently guided his head to a position where he could properly see his face. His hair was bit of a mess and his pale cheeks were blotched, from both blush and tears, and Lockhart was sure he had never seen anything more beautiful. ”I don’t care about your parents, or whoever this ’Lily’ was, and I don’t care about whatever the students have to say about your hair –”

Severus frowned. ”They talk about my hair?”

”It shines like a river at midnight,” said Lockhart dreamily. ”If only you could see yourself. You’re already enticing in daytime, but the moonlight...”

Severus’s face, so close to his, those deep black eyes entirely captivated by Lockhart’s shimmering smile. The warmth of his body against Lockhart’s, Severus’s icy fingertips freezing small spots in his back through the robes. His scent, that of potions and old leather and cold stone walls.

”May I kiss you?” Lockhart murmured.

”That is more than I could ever wish for.”

”You deserve it,” said Lockhart softly. ”But do you truly still want it? Even after all this time?”

”Always,” Severus whispered. He leaned in closer, and Lockhart closed the gap, the lips of two lost lovers finally meeting as they should have had all those years ago.


End file.
